If the American Jewish Lobby is so powerful, how come Israel keeps shrinking?


Gaza is gone; Sinai, Hebron, Judea, Samaria - all are completely or partially chopped up, and all of this as the so-called powerful Jewish Lobby stood by and watched.


Likewise, according to a US assessment, international charitable contributions to the (terrorist) Palestinian Authority, instead of being eliminated as advertised, actually doubled in 2006 from $350 million to $700 million. No other people on earth gets this kind of baby-sitting to hush their tantrums.


What "Jewish Lobby"?


But this - the debate over whether the Jewish Lobby is too powerful - is only part of the discussion that's heating up between Jewish liberals and conservatives. The New York Times provided an overview of this tempest in a January 31 analysis titled "Essay Linking Liberal Jews and Anti-Semitism Sparks a Furor."


If the American Jewish Lobby is so powerful, how come Israel keeps shrinking?



In a nutshell - are conservative Jews trying to muzzle leftist co-religionists who denounce Israel, and is it fair to term these Israel-scoffers as anti-Semites? The answer to part one is, I don't know. The answer to part two is, yes. Jews who yell fire in a world crowded with Israel-bashers are anti-Semites.


As for me, I take it from King Solomon that there is a time for everything. This is not the time to jump on Israel. If there were 22 Jewish countries, as there are 22 Arab countries, sure, go, knock yourself out. But there is only one Jewish state, where five and a half million Jews are (internationally) adrift without a paddle.


What's the problem? There's not enough criticism of Israel? We live in a world where the leader of Iran openly calls for Israel's destruction, where the United Nations condemns Israel every Monday and Thursday, where thousands of British academics persist in boycotting Israel, where cries of jihad against Jews (yes, against Christians, as well) echo from Riyadh to Dearborn, Michigan - and into all this we need an Amen chorus of Jews?


Jimmy Carter isn't enough?


I give you, then, James Baker and his predecessors and successors, plus the bombs of Hamas and Hizbullah, as criticism enough for any one nation.


Let us, say the critics, have an "open debate" about Israel. Translation: let's not. Carter refused to debate Alan Dershowitz at Brandeis University, and from campus to campus speakers like Daniel Pipes get roughed up and drowned out by hecklers. (What other country gets "debated" as often as Israel?)


About Israel's "right to exist" - I've heard this before, and even before Israel existed. What's changed since 1933? Nothing. Except that now, today, some Jews have joined the party. They celebrate themselves for ganging-up, piling on and hazing the only country in the Middle East that does not practice apartheid.


I'm not taking a scholarly approach on this, merely instinctive and emotional. So, let me say it again. Jews who blast Israel at this time and place are anti-Semitic. Does this include Tony Kushner and Tony Judt? What about the British husband and wife tag-team of Steven and Hillary Rose, two Jewish professors who won't stop until Israel is utterly isolated? What about Harold Pinter?


Is this Jewish anti-Semitism? Well, you must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is still a sigh, and a curse is still a curse, as time goes by.


If only (by the way) we had a real Jewish Lobby 60-70 years ago, maybe a few more of us could have been saved. Yes, there were Jewish lobbies then, too, but as they dithered in their (Manhattan) tents, the ovens kept smoking. Back then, we had Ben Hecht (bless his name), the Kook-Bergson Group and a few others (God bless Frank Sinatra, as well) who rallied against the Holocaust and in favor of Israel, but nothing like a "Powerful Jewish Lobby."


What's the problem? There's not enough criticism of Israel?



The people who are all in knots over this Powerful Jewish Lobby are, of course, standard issue and street-corner anti-Semites, but also "leading Jews within the academic community." Such as? Such as the comedy team of Mearsheimer and Walt, two Jewish professors (Harvard and the University of Chicago, respectively) who published a hilarious paper in reproach of the Powerful American Jewish Lobby. This made headlines. And we dare not dispute these jokers, otherwise we "stifle debate."


What, the Arabs have no lobby? Who, then, got into those hundreds of photos with President George W. Bush? That wasn't Abe Foxman in a keffiyeh.


For argument's sake, let us assume that there is no Arab Lobby. All right, then, the Jews have the Lobby, the Arabs have the oil.


As for me - you keep the lobby, I'll take the oil.
 
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Go here to get the latest installment of The Bathsheba Deadline - Jack Engelhard's latest novel and Amazon.com's first serialized novel. Part 11 is now available for download. Haven't started reading it yet? Click the link and scroll down - all previous installments are there and ready to be downloaded.